"Fake people have a image to maintain. Real people just don't care."
-Hikigaya Hachiman
Yeah, I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I don't like slice-of-life highschool anime. Their full to the brim with countless clichés. They usually have no clear ending. Their characters are just cardboard cutouts dangled on a string. But the thing I can't stand, is just how many of them portray high-school just... so... wrong. It makes it seem like highschool is some kind of idealistic growing point in your life, where you discover who you truly are, and form all the relationships that will be crucial for the rest of your life. Let's be frank, these high-school anime represents real life pretty much as well as if they set in an alternate dimension where all the students were bears, or if God himself attended the school. Oh, wait...
It just plain...pisses me off, and that pretty much sums up my relationship with these kind of anime. When I picked out this anime to watch, pretty much at random, I expected all of this crap to be waiting for me down the line. But it turns out, everybody, that not only is My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU actually pretty damn good, but it's also the most honest, accurate, and downright relatable anime I have ever seen in my life, that captures perfectly the social dynamics, relationships, and trials of highschool, with some of the best and wittiest dialogue of any anime period.
Hello everybody, my name is Quan, and today we will be looking at an anime very, very close to my heart: the underrated highschool flashback anime that had no reason at all to be this good, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU(which is just going to be called SNAFU from now on, because that name is annoying to type out.). Let's get started.
SNAFU was brought to life by the wonderful people over at Brains Base animation, who if you can't remember, were also responsible for my all time favorite anime Baccano!, and the sequel to the original economic and relaxing romp: Spice and Wolf, appropriately named Spice and Wolf II. It was directed by Ai Yoshimura, who has done...um...give me a minute. Actually, pretty much just this. I mean, she directing Ao Haru Ride, which is actually airing right now, but besides from that, there's only some storyboards for Anohana and Gintama'. Well...that just makes her even more awesome. Go watch Ao Haru Ride guys. Probably is going to be really good.
The script was handled by Touko Machida, who also wrote the scripts for shows such as Hamatora The Animation, and Akiba-chan, but the original creator of SNAFU is Wataru Watari. The anime itself is 13 episodes long, and aired in the Spring of 2013. Now, with that covered, we can talk about the plot...for lack of a better word.
We open with Hikigaya Hachiman, a student at Sōbu High School, but he's far from a typical bland highschool student protagonist. He is, for lack of a better phrase, kind of a prick, whose brusque with everyone and everything, and his pragmatism tends to get everyone around very annoyed with him. He stays like this, friendless and fine with that fact, until Hachiman's language teacher: Shizuka Hiratsuka, decides otherwise. She forces him to join a very unusual club: The Service Club, whose sole purpose is to help other students with whatever problem they bring to the club. The Service Club's only other member is Yukino Yukinoshito, who is basically the most popular, rich, and academically gifted girl in the school, but despite all this, like Hachiman, has hardly any friends at all. As the pair attempt to help students with problems, despite their clashing personalities, they are also joined by Yui Yuigahama, a girl who has struggled to both fit into highschool while also voicing her opinion on things. From then on, the show follows an arc format, with each arc being a problem brought to the Service Club by any given student. What follows it a incredible relatable, yet flawed tale, of relationships, bears, and what fitting in is truly worth.
Let's focus on the positives first shall we? Now, I think I've said this enough, but how close to home this anime can strike occasionally is almost rather unsettling, so much so that it might as well be me talking than the characters occasionally. Real social and relationship problems are addressed throughout the anime, while some other slice-of-life's would just put in unrealistic melodrama, SNAFU puts in real teenage anxiety and distress, all told through the eyes of a main character so pessimistic that he can take it all at face value. While it can be also satirical of these relationships and anxiety occasionally(in the spirit of an anime like Watamote), most of the time when Hachiman isn't sarcastically commenting on what's happening, the anime can be a little bit discouraging or even depressing. Any given arc will usually end with either Hachiman being blamed for the problem, though most of the time that's according to his plan(more on that later), or be so bittersweet that you're not sure how to react. Just like in real life. Problems don't get neatly solved in the span of one arc; there's misunderstandings, friendships fail, and certain students are pushed to the side by their peers. This isn't a bad thing though, if anything, it just shows how much the anime knows what it's talking about, and is somewhat refreshing in a way. Regardless, it's just plain fantastic.
Also, oh my god the dialogue in this anime. When Hachiman isn't sprouting these incredible monologues that solidify him as "The King Of Highschool", some which I hold as some of the most relatable, intelligent, and amazing dialogue in anime period, it's interactions between the club-members. Seriously, when Hachiman and Yukino interact with each-other, it's just pure gold. Since both of them are completely honest and blunt with everyone, their conversations with one another make up of a series of sarcasm, word plays, and verbal abuse that is so incredibly entertaining and fun to watch.
OK, I know I've been pretty much been non-stop praising this anime till now, but unfortunately, it's now time to address why this anime can never been on the same level as some of my favorites. Now yes, this anime is a refreshing and honest portrayal of highschool relationships and social life, with characters strong enough to relay these themes, but that doesn't mean it won't fall back on typical slice-of-life tropes when it has to. I mean let's be honest, the very premise of the series is one that has been done a million times before: cast-out loner suddenly is thrust into a club with the prettiest girl in school; not exactly original stuff, no matter how much the anime evolves from then on. When you exclude the main characters as well, you find your typical bunch of stereotypes, that are only really there for Hachiman to dissect their social group one archetype at a time. I mean, you have Yoshiteru: the otaku suffering from adolescence disillusion, Saika: the trap character, Hayama: the hunk, and Hachiman's teacher Shizuka is basically just a less mild clone of Miss Sawako from K-On! The story-lines the anime provides are nothing too outside the slice-of-life's tattered old box, from the fireworks episode, the school festival episode, to the episode where all the female characters dress up in maid uniforms. It really quite a shame, because all it does at the end of the day is water down a series that had so much potential and originality going for it; I fervently wish that the writers didn't think that they had to fall back on these weary tropes. It really makes me depressed when I think about it actually. This isn't to say the story-lines aren't sometimes awesome, the student council arc being one of my personal favorites, but mostly their just excuses for Hachiman to be sarcastic and stuff. Also, the series does kind of seem like it has run out of ideas by the end, because at the point where the characters are dressing up in suits of armor for the school festival, I'd say you're running dry on concepts for stories. And for some reason, there's this completely forgettable OVA included, which just ended up being a huge pile of nothing. I guess that's really neither here nor there in terms of the series though.
As we move on to talk about our characters, and especially our main character Hachiman, I just want to say how much I love this guy. When you take him at face value, yes, he's kind of a jerk to everyone, but the more you spend time with this character the more you begin to understand him, through both those occasionally amazing monologues he has, but also the lack of correlation between what he says, and what he actually does. Due to several events events that occurred in grade and middle-school, Hachiman has pretty much closed himself off completely from people, and thus is willing to take whatever blame, for whatever he needs to, in order to keep his classes' social status quot, pretty much committing "social suicide" at times to protect everyone else's relationships to each-other, with the firm mindset that nobody will mind if everything is blamed on him. While this might not be entirely true, a fact which Shizuka constantly reminds him, Hachiman pretty has this belief for the whole series, though while it might not be entirely obvious, he does develop through the series, though in very subtle ways. When we're not getting a look at his character, Hachiman provides the comedy for the series, with his sarcasm and pessimism. He basically just sits in the corner of the classroom, and breaks down the social pyramid of his class, which are usually hilarious, relatable, and lead to things like Hachiman's strong desire to be reincarnated as a bear.
Next we have the school's prettiest girl: Yukino Yukinoshita. Now Yukino isn't your typical archetype in this regard. Since she is rich, smart, pretty and aware of the facts, Yukino views herself pretty much above everyone else, and thinks her purpose is to both surpass her even more extraordinary older sister, and help out the "lambs" of the world with her talent. This leads to her severe lack of friends, but also that's due to the fact, that like Hachiman, she is blunt with her speech; saying things that most people wouldn't, no matter how rude or insensitive they are. Also due to her stony demeanor of not laughing or smiling like, ever, Hachiman has nicknamed her "The Ice Cold Beauty". Yukino however, has shown to respect Yui as a friend(if only to Hachiman as an "acquaintance"), and lighten up in certain circumstances, as she slowly begins to respect her peers and friends, though some problems in her past might halt her newly found friendships before they've even begun.
Finally, let's take a look at Yui Yuigahama, who out of the three, is basically the most normal. While she doesn't particularly have any problems socially, it comes at the cost of not being able to voice her opinion. She's the girl who is ready to just agree with everyone in order to fit in and be accepted, never really voicing what she truly thinks. She dislikes this fact about herself, and respects Hachiman's and Yukino's ability to say whatever they think. Being much more outgoing than them though, she's able to become good friends with both of them, with Yukino even after suffering from her verbal abuse at first, and with Hachiman(who she affectionately calls "Hikki"), even if he won't admit it.
As I've said, the supporting cast is really nothing to talk about, though I will give a shout-out to Hayama, for being a much better character than I first given him credit for.
It just plain...pisses me off, and that pretty much sums up my relationship with these kind of anime. When I picked out this anime to watch, pretty much at random, I expected all of this crap to be waiting for me down the line. But it turns out, everybody, that not only is My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU actually pretty damn good, but it's also the most honest, accurate, and downright relatable anime I have ever seen in my life, that captures perfectly the social dynamics, relationships, and trials of highschool, with some of the best and wittiest dialogue of any anime period.
Hello everybody, my name is Quan, and today we will be looking at an anime very, very close to my heart: the underrated highschool flashback anime that had no reason at all to be this good, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU(which is just going to be called SNAFU from now on, because that name is annoying to type out.). Let's get started.
SNAFU was brought to life by the wonderful people over at Brains Base animation, who if you can't remember, were also responsible for my all time favorite anime Baccano!, and the sequel to the original economic and relaxing romp: Spice and Wolf, appropriately named Spice and Wolf II. It was directed by Ai Yoshimura, who has done...um...give me a minute. Actually, pretty much just this. I mean, she directing Ao Haru Ride, which is actually airing right now, but besides from that, there's only some storyboards for Anohana and Gintama'. Well...that just makes her even more awesome. Go watch Ao Haru Ride guys. Probably is going to be really good.
The script was handled by Touko Machida, who also wrote the scripts for shows such as Hamatora The Animation, and Akiba-chan, but the original creator of SNAFU is Wataru Watari. The anime itself is 13 episodes long, and aired in the Spring of 2013. Now, with that covered, we can talk about the plot...for lack of a better word.
We open with Hikigaya Hachiman, a student at Sōbu High School, but he's far from a typical bland highschool student protagonist. He is, for lack of a better phrase, kind of a prick, whose brusque with everyone and everything, and his pragmatism tends to get everyone around very annoyed with him. He stays like this, friendless and fine with that fact, until Hachiman's language teacher: Shizuka Hiratsuka, decides otherwise. She forces him to join a very unusual club: The Service Club, whose sole purpose is to help other students with whatever problem they bring to the club. The Service Club's only other member is Yukino Yukinoshito, who is basically the most popular, rich, and academically gifted girl in the school, but despite all this, like Hachiman, has hardly any friends at all. As the pair attempt to help students with problems, despite their clashing personalities, they are also joined by Yui Yuigahama, a girl who has struggled to both fit into highschool while also voicing her opinion on things. From then on, the show follows an arc format, with each arc being a problem brought to the Service Club by any given student. What follows it a incredible relatable, yet flawed tale, of relationships, bears, and what fitting in is truly worth.
Let's focus on the positives first shall we? Now, I think I've said this enough, but how close to home this anime can strike occasionally is almost rather unsettling, so much so that it might as well be me talking than the characters occasionally. Real social and relationship problems are addressed throughout the anime, while some other slice-of-life's would just put in unrealistic melodrama, SNAFU puts in real teenage anxiety and distress, all told through the eyes of a main character so pessimistic that he can take it all at face value. While it can be also satirical of these relationships and anxiety occasionally(in the spirit of an anime like Watamote), most of the time when Hachiman isn't sarcastically commenting on what's happening, the anime can be a little bit discouraging or even depressing. Any given arc will usually end with either Hachiman being blamed for the problem, though most of the time that's according to his plan(more on that later), or be so bittersweet that you're not sure how to react. Just like in real life. Problems don't get neatly solved in the span of one arc; there's misunderstandings, friendships fail, and certain students are pushed to the side by their peers. This isn't a bad thing though, if anything, it just shows how much the anime knows what it's talking about, and is somewhat refreshing in a way. Regardless, it's just plain fantastic.
 |
| An example of Hachiman's sarcastic outlook on life. |
OK, I know I've been pretty much been non-stop praising this anime till now, but unfortunately, it's now time to address why this anime can never been on the same level as some of my favorites. Now yes, this anime is a refreshing and honest portrayal of highschool relationships and social life, with characters strong enough to relay these themes, but that doesn't mean it won't fall back on typical slice-of-life tropes when it has to. I mean let's be honest, the very premise of the series is one that has been done a million times before: cast-out loner suddenly is thrust into a club with the prettiest girl in school; not exactly original stuff, no matter how much the anime evolves from then on. When you exclude the main characters as well, you find your typical bunch of stereotypes, that are only really there for Hachiman to dissect their social group one archetype at a time. I mean, you have Yoshiteru: the otaku suffering from adolescence disillusion, Saika: the trap character, Hayama: the hunk, and Hachiman's teacher Shizuka is basically just a less mild clone of Miss Sawako from K-On! The story-lines the anime provides are nothing too outside the slice-of-life's tattered old box, from the fireworks episode, the school festival episode, to the episode where all the female characters dress up in maid uniforms. It really quite a shame, because all it does at the end of the day is water down a series that had so much potential and originality going for it; I fervently wish that the writers didn't think that they had to fall back on these weary tropes. It really makes me depressed when I think about it actually. This isn't to say the story-lines aren't sometimes awesome, the student council arc being one of my personal favorites, but mostly their just excuses for Hachiman to be sarcastic and stuff. Also, the series does kind of seem like it has run out of ideas by the end, because at the point where the characters are dressing up in suits of armor for the school festival, I'd say you're running dry on concepts for stories. And for some reason, there's this completely forgettable OVA included, which just ended up being a huge pile of nothing. I guess that's really neither here nor there in terms of the series though.
 |
| The main characters from left to right: Hachiman, Yui, Yukino. |
Next we have the school's prettiest girl: Yukino Yukinoshita. Now Yukino isn't your typical archetype in this regard. Since she is rich, smart, pretty and aware of the facts, Yukino views herself pretty much above everyone else, and thinks her purpose is to both surpass her even more extraordinary older sister, and help out the "lambs" of the world with her talent. This leads to her severe lack of friends, but also that's due to the fact, that like Hachiman, she is blunt with her speech; saying things that most people wouldn't, no matter how rude or insensitive they are. Also due to her stony demeanor of not laughing or smiling like, ever, Hachiman has nicknamed her "The Ice Cold Beauty". Yukino however, has shown to respect Yui as a friend(if only to Hachiman as an "acquaintance"), and lighten up in certain circumstances, as she slowly begins to respect her peers and friends, though some problems in her past might halt her newly found friendships before they've even begun.
Finally, let's take a look at Yui Yuigahama, who out of the three, is basically the most normal. While she doesn't particularly have any problems socially, it comes at the cost of not being able to voice her opinion. She's the girl who is ready to just agree with everyone in order to fit in and be accepted, never really voicing what she truly thinks. She dislikes this fact about herself, and respects Hachiman's and Yukino's ability to say whatever they think. Being much more outgoing than them though, she's able to become good friends with both of them, with Yukino even after suffering from her verbal abuse at first, and with Hachiman(who she affectionately calls "Hikki"), even if he won't admit it.
As I've said, the supporting cast is really nothing to talk about, though I will give a shout-out to Hayama, for being a much better character than I first given him credit for.
 |
| Chilling in the club room. |
As we turn to animation, I will be the first to admit it, I'm a little disappointed with Brains Base here. I know they've been known to cut corners before, judging from Durarara's unfortunate second half, but I thought a little more effort could have been brought to this series. I mean, it's not bad, but when you look at everything else that's been coming out, it seems at best mediocre. Some scenes have extremely questionable animation, though the show does make up for it some aspects with the character designs, except for Yukino, who looks exactly like about a thousand other female characters. The only time the animation looks really good is during the opening, which I'll get to in a moment. Now, before anybody hates me for dipping the score of this anime too low because of this one category, I'm not saying that an anime needs to have good animation to get a high score. Higurashi no naku koro ni is the perfect example of this, but in SNAFU's instance, it would have been helpful in some scenes, and pairing it with the cliched story-lines, it becomes a real problem.
As for sound, again, there's nothing really of note here. I mean there's a couple ambient tracks which are nice, but again, nothing stands out. However, credit where credit is due, the opening "Yukitoki" by Nagi Yanagi is wonderful to listen to, with a catchy and cool tune, featuring high quality animation, which does nothing but remind me that there's no high quality animation, like, anywhere else in the entire series. I'll stop talking about that now.
Also sorry, I wanted to post the opening here, but unfortunately, I couldn't find a version of the song that I was happy with. So instead, here's picture of Hachiman brooding Batman-style.
Also sorry, I wanted to post the opening here, but unfortunately, I couldn't find a version of the song that I was happy with. So instead, here's picture of Hachiman brooding Batman-style.
So there you have it in front of you: My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. OK, despite all the negatives I mentioned, I can't tell you guys enough how much I recommend this anime. It manages to get past it's own clichés to deliver an experience that it truly unlike any other, seen through the eyes of a main character that is constantly challenging the value of social norm and interactions. If you've ever been to, seen, or conceived a highschool, watch this anime. Between Hachiman, Yukino and Yui, I think that no matter who you are, you'll find a bit of yourself in them, social outcast or not. I am also delighted to announce that there will be a season 2 coming out at some point in the future. Yeah, I know that pretty much couldn't have possibly been more vague, but I'm content just to know that it will be on its way. I can wait. It may not be a completely groundbreaking series, as it falls into enough clichés. It may not be the strongest, in both the areas of animation and sound, but for what it is, SNAFU is a fantastic watch, and currently holds a place in my top three slice-of-life shows ever. It really hurts me that this show it really not on a lot of people's radars, so if you watch the show and like it, please spread the word, and give this show the popularity it deserves.
Hope you enjoyed the review.
Final Verdict: 7.5/10
P.S: If I were to be reincarnated as an animal, I think I would be a cheetah.
Alternate Anime:
Watemote
Another series that takes on the burdens of highschool social interactions through the eyes of a misfit. As I said before though, it takes more of a satirical approach to the matter. Not my favorite personally, but if I like it or not, it shares many parallels with SNAFU.
Welcome to the NHK
Like SNAFU, a bit of a downer this one. Instead of tackling the issues of highschool though, NHK addresses real life issues of our society in general, as we follow a cast of amazing characters. It's dark, somewhat depressing, relatable to a fault, and an absolutely fantastic watch.
Goodbye for now guys.
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